A joint effort of The World Bank, the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization, DCPP was launched in 2001 as a four-year initiative to improve the health of people in developing countries by identifying disease control priorities based on scientific evidence and cost-effectiveness. It is funded by a $3.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries was first published by the World Bank in 1993. The original volume examined the priority of 25 conditions based on their public health significance and cost-effectiveness and has become a catalyzing force in the policymaking and academic worlds.

But a decade later, conditions in many countries have changed, and knowledge has been gained about effective healthcare interventions and strategies. Global health has been transformed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, for example, and more is known today about the global disease burden of tobacco, psychiatric disorders, and injury.

The second edition is designed to push disease-control studies into the 21st century. It outlines a stark picture of the current and future state of global health but also offers "best health buys" - the most crucial, proven, and cost-effective health care investments for developing countries.

The book prominently features work by RFF researchers Ramanan Laxminarayan and Jeffrey Chow. Senior Fellow Laxminarayan was the lead author of Chapter 2, "Intervention Cost-Effectiveness: Overview of Main Messages", to which Chow contributed, and Chapter 55, "Drug Resistance."

The volume is published alongside Priorities in Health, a shorter companion book; and Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors, which incorporates information from more than 10,000 datasets relating to population health and mortality. In conjunction with these publications, DCPP launched http://www.dcp2.org on April 3. The website includes a "create your own book" feature, in which users can pick chapters for a custom PDF, along with fact sheets, a global health calendar, and a quarterly newsletter.